The temperature dependent catalytic activity of almond beta-glucosidase controlled by concerted motions of loop regions (LRs).

The data represents the bacterial community profile obtained through metagenomic sequencing of soil sample, collected from the ‘Rarh’ region of West Bengal, which is characterized by the lateritic badlands dating back to the late Pleistocene. Taxonomic binning and operational taxonomic unit (OTU) prediction of the Illumina sequencing data indicated the abundance Proteobacteria (61%) followed closely by Bacterioidetes (35%). The top two most abundant genera identified, were Sphingobacterium and Acinetobacter respectively. Chemical properties of soil, such as pH, organic carbon content, available nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium were also analyzed for enabling future researchers to correlate the abundance of microbial taxa with the prevalent conditions. These findings can be effectively used to formulate strategic microbiome engineering through bioaugmentation for a sustainable agricultural system.

While heat and humidity are known for causing oxidative macromolecular cell damage related seed deterioration during storage under subtropical conditions, information on effect of UV radiation that is also known to cause bio-molecular as well as direct hit damage in plants is largely lacking. A study involving measurements of UV irradiance in seed storage and also over open fields during seed maturation reveals an inverse correlation between genetically conferred (varietally expressed) content of non-enzymatic antioxidant viz flavonoids (functioning also as successors) and seed deterioration during post harvest storage. The data shows that extent of cell damage and thus seed viability is related to the varietal difference in flavonoids accumulation in mature rice seed. Low storer/viable varieties show lower content of flavonoids and higher oxidative damage in stored seed.

Conformational dynamics of macromolecules including enzymes are essential for their function. The present work reports on the role of essential dynamics in alpha-chymotrypsin (CHT) which correlates with its catalytic activity. Detailed optical spectroscopy and classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to study thermal stability, catalytic activity and dynamical flexibility of the enzyme. The study of the enzyme kinetics reveals optimum catalytic efficiency at 308 K. Polarization gated fluorescence anisotropy with 8-anilino-1-napthe-lene sulfonate (ANS) have revealed increasing flexibility of the enzyme with an increase in temperature. Examination of the structure of CHT reveal the presence of five loop regions (LRs) around the catalytic S1 pocket. MD simulations have indicated that flexibility increases concurrently with temperature which decreases beyond an optimum temperature. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the eigenvectors manifests essential dynamics and gatekeeping role of the five LRs surrounding the catalytic pocket which controls the enzyme activity.[a] P. Biswas, Dr.

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